Antrim Hurling

[johnnycool]

Very quiet on the league front on here with the hurling this year. Not much real interest in the games it seems from supporters.

I've been to a few games and none of them have been really worth the while of travelling to in terms of a contest.

Portaferry or St Endas look to be in trouble at the moment with Ballygalget not far behind them from what I've seen of them.

Ballycastle look to be well equipped to win that league as they have the stronger panel at their use for it. Never a bad thing to see someone different win it.

We've took some heavy defeats in recent weeks but got a decisive win over St Enda's yesterday.

Minus county players and injuries are killing us, Ports are well shorn of their main players also and I'd say St Enda's really miss their three county lads.

Other clubs are better set to cover for those players missing, but we aren't just yet.

If we collect points from those who will be around us come the split, we'll not get too bothered about getting beat by Loughgeil, the Dall and Dunloy.

Ballycastle are going well, have they any lads tied up with the county teams?

[Milltown Row2]

From what I've seen

Ballycastle playing really well and keeping the foot on the gas. Strong in the tackle and accurate with long range efforts..

Portaferry will be better with county lads back, played well enough in a game I did against St John's

The Johnnies missing a few but will be safe enough you'd assume

Rossa doing well enough without a full deck just yet

Glenariffe have a tremendous fight in them, and have settled well in their first year back in a few years, be interesting to see them a championship pace..

Ballygalget... I could have put my gear on and showed better that day lol! No depth Johnny and meeting teams with a full deck is tough enough

That's about it, haven't seen the others yet this year, would expect loughgiel Dunloy and The Dall to be there abouts come the tail end of the league in prep for championship

[SaffronSports]

Was at Glenariffe vs Cushendall on Friday night. Cushendall the better side for most of it, Glenariffe's best spell probably came just before and just after half time.

Glenariffe already a few points on the board so good chance they end that run of Division 2 winners to come straight back down. They're probably close enough to their full panel atm and i dont see them troubling the business end of the Senior Championship but absolutely think depending on the draw they could retain senior status which would be the first intermediate champions to do so in a few years as well.

One other point is both sides have some brilliant youngsters which i suppose is to be expected from the last two Ulster Minor champions.

[NAG1]

I think we've effectively killed the hurling leagues, teams are showing up and the games I've seen various match-ups have barely been above pre-season friendly level. There is no bite in them at all and while they may be decent for getting squad players games, I see very little else about them that is worthwhile.

I know with the split season this is kind of inevitable but I think its not good longer term for the club game.

[Milltown Row2]

I think we've effectively killed the hurling leagues, teams are showing up and the games I've seen various match-ups have barely been above pre-season friendly level. There is no bite in them at all and while they may be decent for getting squad players games, I see very little else about them that is worthwhile.

I know with the split season this is kind of inevitable but I think its not good longer term for the club game.

Until you put some reason/benefit into it then it will have no intensity to it

[NAG1]

I think we've effectively killed the hurling leagues, teams are showing up and the games I've seen various match-ups have barely been above pre-season friendly level. There is no bite in them at all and while they may be decent for getting squad players games, I see very little else about them that is worthwhile.

I know with the split season this is kind of inevitable but I think its not good longer term for the club game.

Until you put some reason/benefit into it then it will have no intensity to it

Yeah totally agree, it would be interesting to see some new novel ideas of how to incentivise performance across the league. Even without the county players, there is bound to be some way to get the clubs interested in being competitive.

[imtommygunn]

Seems to be the same across football and hurling in loads of counties. The lower divisions are probably fine as less county players and promotion / relegation. The bottom end of our football division 1 is definitely much more interesting than the top. Same in NFL / NHL division 1 too.

Dunno what the answer is.

[podge]

Seems to be the same across football and hurling in loads of counties. The lower divisions are probably fine as less county players and promotion / relegation. The bottom end of our football division 1 is definitely much more interesting than the top. Same in NFL / NHL division 1 too.

Dunno what the answer is.

I think we've effectively killed the hurling leagues, teams are showing up and the games I've seen various match-ups have barely been above pre-season friendly level. There is no bite in them at all and while they may be decent for getting squad players games, I see very little else about them that is worthwhile.

I know with the split season this is kind of inevitable but I think its not good longer term for the club game.

Until you put some reason/benefit into it then it will have no intensity to it

Yeah totally agree, it would be interesting to see some new novel ideas of how to incentivise performance across the league. Even without the county players, there is bound to be some way to get the clubs interested in being competitive.

One easy step is to reduce county squad sizes or at least allow those that are outside of a match day 20/21 to play for their clubs.  There's lads that are part of extended squads that are getting no game time at any level.

[marty34]

I think we've effectively killed the hurling leagues, teams are showing up and the games I've seen various match-ups have barely been above pre-season friendly level. There is no bite in them at all and while they may be decent for getting squad players games, I see very little else about them that is worthwhile.

I know with the split season this is kind of inevitable but I think its not good longer term for the club game.

Until you put some reason/benefit into it then it will have no intensity to it

Yeah totally agree, it would be interesting to see some new novel ideas of how to incentivise performance across the league. Even without the county players, there is bound to be some way to get the clubs interested in being competitive.

What about an Ulster league? Would tht work? Obviously distance mid-week may be a problem but it'd be interesting and a bit more competitive I think.

Different levels of standard but worth a shot?

[Tony Baloney]

I think we've effectively killed the hurling leagues, teams are showing up and the games I've seen various match-ups have barely been above pre-season friendly level. There is no bite in them at all and while they may be decent for getting squad players games, I see very little else about them that is worthwhile.

I know with the split season this is kind of inevitable but I think its not good longer term for the club game.

Until you put some reason/benefit into it then it will have no intensity to it

Yeah totally agree, it would be interesting to see some new novel ideas of how to incentivise performance across the league. Even without the county players, there is bound to be some way to get the clubs interested in being competitive.

What about an Ulster league? Would tht work? Obviously distance mid-week may be a problem but it'd be interesting and a bit more competitive I think.

Different levels of standard but worth a shot?

There was the Tain Ulster Club League 15 years ago or so.

[marty34]

I think we've effectively killed the hurling leagues, teams are showing up and the games I've seen various match-ups have barely been above pre-season friendly level. There is no bite in them at all and while they may be decent for getting squad players games, I see very little else about them that is worthwhile.

I know with the split season this is kind of inevitable but I think its not good longer term for the club game.

Until you put some reason/benefit into it then it will have no intensity to it

Yeah totally agree, it would be interesting to see some new novel ideas of how to incentivise performance across the league. Even without the county players, there is bound to be some way to get the clubs interested in being competitive.

What about an Ulster league? Would tht work? Obviously distance mid-week may be a problem but it'd be interesting and a bit more competitive I think.

Different levels of standard but worth a shot?

There was the Tain Ulster Club League 15 years ago or so.

How did it go or why did it stop?

I think it could be looked at again. Pick a certain night of week and play say, 6 games.

Without county players from March - early June. 

[NAG1]

I think we've effectively killed the hurling leagues, teams are showing up and the games I've seen various match-ups have barely been above pre-season friendly level. There is no bite in them at all and while they may be decent for getting squad players games, I see very little else about them that is worthwhile.

I know with the split season this is kind of inevitable but I think its not good longer term for the club game.

Until you put some reason/benefit into it then it will have no intensity to it

Yeah totally agree, it would be interesting to see some new novel ideas of how to incentivise performance across the league. Even without the county players, there is bound to be some way to get the clubs interested in being competitive.

What about an Ulster league? Would tht work? Obviously distance mid-week may be a problem but it'd be interesting and a bit more competitive I think.

Different levels of standard but worth a shot?

There was the Tain Ulster Club League 15 years ago or so.

How did it go or why did it stop?

I think it could be looked at again. Pick a certain night of week and play say, 6 games.

Without county players from March - early June. 

Always thought that bringing the top 3 Derry Teams in would have improved the league and brought a different element to it. I do like the idea of reducing the size of the county panels as well.

[Milltown Row2]

We played, as minors, an Ulster league back in the day, the main Derry teams at the time and all the Antrim and Down teams I think, f**k it was a bruising season or two! But high quality games from memory and traveling to pitches unknown to us back then

The logistics and timing would be the main factors here but if there was a will between the counties they could fix it, at club level there isn't much between the top teams when they have access to all their squad, the difference is when playing without the main players from their county teams..

Accessing these players for the leagues creates the shadow boxing set up and false form come the end of season leading into Championship

[Na Glinntí Glasa]

I remember the ulster league being about for a while but it died a death.

I think we won it three times beating Ballygalget, Loughgiel & Cushendall in finals of it. It didn't seem too popular as it was seen as extra games that weren't needed if you were a dual club.

The football runs ulster leagues in pre season but again it seems a bit pointless and nothing more than an excuse to ruin your pitch in January!   

[NAG1]

I remember the ulster league being about for a while but it died a death.

I think we won it three times beating Ballygalget, Loughgiel & Cushendall in finals of it. It didn't seem too popular as it was seen as extra games that weren't needed if you were a dual club.

The football runs ulster leagues in pre season but again it seems a bit pointless and nothing more than an excuse to ruin your pitch in January!   

I remember and it was a pre-season thing, but I am talking about it replacing the main league to try something a bit different.